Bhubaneswar: Orissa athletes ruled the sprint events again as the state secured two gold medals and a silver on the second day of the Federation Cup National Athletic Championship at Patiala, Friday.
Amiya Kumar Mallick bagged gold in the men’s 200 metres, while Srabani Nanda bagged the yellow metal in the women’s 200 metres beating her statemate Dutee Chand who had to be satisfied with a silver.
In the men’s event Amiya clocked 21.22 seconds to take the top honours. Sanjeet of Haryana emerged runner-up with a time of 21.43 seconds. Vamsi Praveen of Andhra Pradesh clocked 21.78 seconds to finish third.
In the women’s event Srabani stood first with a time of 23.57 seconds, while Dutee clocked 23.60 seconds. Jyothi HM of Karnataka finished third after clocking 24.37 seconds.
Orissa have so far bagged four medals including two gold and two silver in the competition. On the first day of the competition Jauna Murmu of the state had won a silver in the 400 metres hurdles.
Meanwhile Neeraj Chopra beat Davinder Singh in a thrilling men’s javelin throw contest to win the gold en route to a new meet record.
World junior record holder Chopra ran away with the honours with a fine best throw of 85.63m. The Neeraj-Davinder duel was the highlight of the day. Neeraj’s effort, eclipsed Devender Singh’s mark of 79.65m recorded in Mangalore in 2015, put him in the top 10 list in the world this season.
PNN
